What migrates when? Good question, I always thought it was the calendar (how short the days were getting) but now I'm not so sure. BTW I never payed much attention to this aspect of hunting before. It seems to be different for species too.

When the small ponds freeze over the ducks have to migrate or move to big water or moving water.

The birds that have left, seem to be being replaced by new birds, that sort of makes sense. The weather is warming up during the day making lots of feed available. The geese are in large mixed flocks, snows and honkers. All open water is covered with mostly geese but some ducks too.

Years ago the US and Canadian Biologists couldn't agree on limits for ducks, the mallards were the issue. The Americans wanted 8 birds and the Canadians 6. The Canadians closed the Bow river through Calgary, a city of more than 1 million people with lots of warm water being put back in the river down stream of the city. They closed the waterfowl season on the river until Boxing day, at which time the local boys opened fire and the ducks headed straight to Mexico because all the water in the American west was ice. This went on for a year or 2 until we had a very cold winter in December when the open water on the river got quite small, by then there were over 100,000 ducks standing on the ice and in the small pool of open water. 35,000 mallards died all at once of Botulism.

Since then cooler heads have prevailed.

It would seem that the ducks will stay as long as there is open water, a safe roost and lots of food on the ground.

That's what I observe. Some portion of some species of ducks and geese only migrate south if their food sources become inaccessible with ice or snow for extended lengths of time. And other species seem to migrate driven by the calendar. As noted some portion of the annual Mallard flight seems to never make it south. Same with Canadas. Whitefronts head south mostly based on the change in daylight i.e. The Calendar (saw a flock heading south yesterday and I do every year while sitting in a tree stand in October). BWT go all the way south once a little bit of cool weather sets in and then I shoot some GWT between the ice floes on the river in January each year, (that never happens with BWT). Snow geese seem to be driven south by weather and availability of food vs the calendar. My best hunting for Mallards and Canadas is in January and February, the colder the better due to even colder weather up north driving them down the flyway.

It varies both by species and then by the individual subpopulations within certain other species, is what I experience.

Some geese are moving out, and some are moving in. It is supposed to be well above freezing today, and again by mid week, so the migration may slow down this week. I am seeing more and more snows every day.

Yes there are way more birds than a few days ago. I can get that as the big water freezes up north larger flocks will show up here and that's what is happening.

The small ponds are no longer in play but the big water has lots of enormous flocks and lots of them. The odd part there are family sized flocks showing up too. All the water is back to a liquid state.

If some of you fellows aren't busy you could come up here and shoot a few, 50 snows a day and no possession limit.

Densa44 wrote:If some of you fellows aren't busy you could come up here and shoot a few, 50 snows a day and no possession limit.

I would love to, but it's quite a drive for me to where you live (about 40 hours). Also, aren't American citizens required to hunt with a "registered guide" when in Canada now? I know I heard or read somewhere that's the current law.